Aphera Music

This is really beautiful. It’s a new song from Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear.

Sorry that we never made an end of year list or anything. Larissa and I had a pretty busy but really fun break and the list kinda fell through because of that. Who cares anyway cuz we’re looking forward to some awesome releases in 2012. Looking forwards is more fun.

George

Well hi there!

With Christmas in clear sight and all that jazz it certainly seems like time for some kind of best albums of 2011 list to show up sooner or later. Nope! But don’t worry something is coming, and what Larissa and I have agreed upon is a sort of “Top 10 Musical Moments of 2011″. It’s something new but this year we found it particularly difficult to agree upon/find 10 albums that fit the list. Despite this, we still had a rocking year in music so we’re just doing it differently.

In other news, Radiohead appears to be serializing their releases lately. They released a 12″ not long after The King of Limbs and they’re doing it again next week with their two newest songs, “Staircase” and “The Daily Mail”. Listen to a radio rip of “The Daily Mail”. Sorry about the quality but if you can wait three days a proper mp3 is sure to come around.

Daily Mail by weallwantsome1

Best,

George

It feels so good to be done that I feel like doing whatever the hell these guys are doing…

p.s. Diplo, one half of Major Lazer, is the guy in yellow handing out baked goodies at the end.

My last final is in less than 12 hours so here’s my study break. Boy can you get down to this. mmmmmmm

On that note, my next post will likely be from  home sweet home so see y’all soon.

What’s better for studying for finals than some ambient music? Probably actually studying, to answer my own question, but listening to Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II is good enough for now. This selection, “Matchsticks”, is perhaps one of the most terrifying bits of music ever written. Honestly…

.

Producer Julio Bashmore’s as of yet unreleased track “Well Wishers”. I heard this along with the track by the Portico Quartet called “City of Glass” which I’ve uploaded to the player. It is also unreleased as of yet. Dig it.

The Bashmore track is just a really slick groove and I’ve had on repeat for a while now. The Portico Quartet song is a really cool song in that it was recorded 100% live. This is incredible because as you can notice it’s heavily electronic. It’s a quartet too, not your mom and dad’s string quartet though. The idea of four guys getting together to collaborate and perform electronic music of this nature excites me as the standard four piece rock band format falls apart around us. It’s a new direction and example of the synergy that small intimate “bands” can achieve. So dig it.

ps sorry about all the talking during the beginning of the track. I ripped it from Gilles Peterson’s radio show about a week ago.

Lastly, a new James Blake song for y’all.

It happens all too infrequently where I’ll revere an album and adore the sounds on it till I tire it out. Then I’ll sometimes look up live versions of certain songs from the album which can sometimes give me a new appreciation of the album tracks or I’ll simply fall in love all over again with the live version. Well both these things happened for two songs from two of my favorite music makers of this year.

First let’s talk about SBTRKT. I recently missed out on an opportunity to see him live here in Chicago because I flew to Philly that weekend to see family. Several of my friends went to see SBTRKT and of those who weren’t kicked out (ha ha!) they said it kicked all kinds of ass. I’m mad jealous. But anyway here’s a live studio recording made for the BBC of SBTRKT’s “Hold On”, a song which is well in contention for bets song of the year.

hold on (live at maida vale for bbc 1xtra) by sbtrkt

Next is James Blake. I’ve had the opportunity now to have seen him twice in Chicago. Both times blew my mind to say the least. Here’s a performance of his song “CMYK” from this summer at Pitchfork fest where I saw him the first time. I’m was to the right of the stage if you wanna look for my head It’s incredible how full of  a sound he gets with just three guys on stage. The band’s coordination also is incredible as, if you can notice, the guitarist and drummer trade off triggering the song’s characteristic vocal samples.

Ah, what a great label: Stones Throw. Home to one of my favorite producers, Madlib, who is responsible for producing what is some of rapper Doom’s best works (see Madvillain). They are also home now to a really interesting project by a bunch of session musicians, all with very impressive resumes, who banded together (pun!) to form what is known as The Stepkids. They released their debut album and it hardly got the attention it deserved. For your edification I’ve included two tracks of theirs from the new album on the player, “La La” and “Suburban Dream”. I’ve posted about “La La” before because it’s absolutely brilliant but that’s because the band members all possess an incredible ability, as I assume top notch session musicians should have, to emulate the classic sounds of the hit pop songs of the 60s and 70s and on top of that their songwriting is pretty clever; you’ll know what I mean when you hear the songs I’ve posted. So please check these guys out because they were pretty much glossed over by Pitchfork, who gave them a tragically mediocre review. I mean I wish I could put every song of theirs on the player; it’s that good.

Click here to access the player.

Back to Stones Throw, they put out a podcast that I periodically listen to and it’s always 100% quality so if you’re looking for some chill sounds from guys who are in the know and always presenting the coolest newest stuff, look into it. Check it out here. I’m an advocate of label awareness so if you like a particular band, see who puts their music out and see who else is on the label. It’s likely you’ll find similar artists or at least artists of the same caliber and it’s a great way to find new music.

yeah I need to get a life...

Hello friends!

I’m working on a whole batch of new music right now that I hope to have finished by the new year but until then I’m excited to share the first track that I’ve finished from the bunch. It’s called “Running from Daylight” and I sincerely hope you enjoy it.

I’ve put the track on the player, or you can right-click here and do a “save as” or whatever if you really want the file. Also, You’ll notice the track is credited to Yurij. This is the name I’m recording under now. Boom.

Next topic: Radiohead recently played two shows in NYC and now they’ve recently released tour dates for a bunch of shows for the southern US but fortunately it appears there are more dates coming. But what I wanted to share was a recording from one of their recent NYC shows which features Radiohead opening their song, “Everything in its Right Place”, with Thom Yorke singing a truly beautiful rendition of REM’s “The One I Love”. I’ve included it on the player. As you may have heard, REM recently broke up and it’s a shame because they were a very powerful and benevolent force in Rock and Roll. But hey, it’s not like they’re dead or anything lol.  Michael Stipe is still out there and being ridiculously awesome. Watch below: his appearance on the “Reporrrrrrrr”.

Let me also take the opportunity to express my sympathy for all the victims of the Sandusky situation, which sadly not only includes the victims he personally touched but it also extends to all residents of the area surrounding Penn State and all the individuals who have ever associated themselves with the university. I know we’ll have the ability to rebound because us Penn Staters are really tough.

Lastly, I’ve really been listening to too much Neil Young lately so also I’m including one of my favorite Neil Young tracks to the player: “The Loner”. This track was what led me to fall in love with his music and I recently covered it at an open mic (at which I wore my REM shirt) which was fun because I rarely do stuff like that.

Respectfully,

George aka Yurij aka Yurchyk

The two most musically active members of Radiohead have paired up with one of my favorite rappers to bring you the track “Retarded Fren”. Jonny Greenwood’s involvement seems to be the appropriation of his orchestral work, “Popcorn Superhet Receiver”, which appears to be sampled and elaborated upon by Thom Yorke and rapped over by Doom aka MF Doom aka (with madlib) Madvillain. The track is simple enough and kinda interesting. It seems to be some sort of promotion for some label’s tenth birthday. I dunno the track is good enough to stand alone so I haven’t looked much further into its raison d’etre.

listen to it here

I’ve also included on the playlist my favorite Doom track, “Great Day”, from his classic collaboration with Madlib, Madvillainy, so click the player icon on the right to check it and everything else that we’ve posted out.